Acquisition of a PALM Laser Trap Microscope

达特茅斯学院的罗杰·D·斯洛博达博士获得了一笔赠款，用于购买一台显微镜，用于基于激光的显微操作、活细胞或固定细胞的收集以及亚细胞颗粒的操作。该仪器将为达特茅斯大学生物科学系提供新的能力，涉及教师和研究生的研究和本科生教学。目前，在新罕布夏州或佛蒙特州，在合理距离内的任何其他地方，这群教师都无法获得这种显微镜的能力。该显微镜使用计算机控制下的基于激光的技术来移动、操纵和收集细胞和细胞的亚细胞部分，以供进一步分析。这种显微镜的设计特点和易用性表明，它将把这些能力带给达特茅斯的学生和教职员工。将使用这台仪器的教师是分子和细胞生物学研究生项目的成员，他们的研究涵盖了从酵母到高等动植物的生物光谱。所有正在进行的研究项目都适用于使用现代计算机增强的显微镜图像采集和分析技术的方法。因此，这一工具为用户群体的研究工作提供了统一的重点。达特茅斯大学将从这一仪器中受益的项目的一些具体例子包括：脂类平衡期间膜结合的囊泡运输，有丝分裂纺锤体两极的形成和维持，负责在细胞分裂时分离染色体的细胞组件，内源和外源类固醇对早期胚胎发育的影响，神经元中膜结合的囊泡的轴浆运输，作为培养细胞未来癌变生长指标的细胞自身荧光的变化，以及特定核蛋白在细胞分裂中的作用。这份简短的清单仅突出了将立即从获奖设备中受益的几个项目。高分辨率光学显微镜和增强的可视化技术长期以来一直是达特茅斯生物科学系教员的重点，这一奖项与该系过去30年的历史发展不谋而合。获得一台能够激光消融、基于激光的细胞分离和对细胞和亚细胞颗粒进行激光陷阱操作的显微镜，将很好地补充目前的仪器，并极大地改善该系教师和研究生和本科生的研究和培训环境。激光显微镜将提高教师的研究效率，并为达特茅斯大学的本科生、研究生和博士后学生提供培训环境。因此，达特茅斯生物科学的研究事业将得到显著加强。

A grant has been awarded to Dr Roger D. Sloboda at Dartmouth College to purchase a Microscope for laser based micromanipulation and collection of living or fixed cells and manipulation of subcellular particles. This instrument will provide new capabilities for the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth, with respect to faculty and graduate student research and undergraduate instruction. The capabilities of this microscope are currently unavailable to this group of faculty anywhere else within a reasonable distance in New Hampshire or Vermont. The microscope uses laser-based technology under computer control to move, manipulate, and collect cells and subcelluar parts of cells for further analysis. The characteristics of design and ease of use indicate this microscope will bring these capabilities to the students and faculty at Dartmouth. The faculty that will make use of this instrument are members of the Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate program, and they cover in their research the biological spectrum from yeast to higher plants and animals. All of the ongoing research projects are amenable to approaches using modern, computer enhanced microscope image acquisition and analysis techniques. Thus, this instrumentation provides a unifying focus for the research efforts of the user group. Some specific examples of the projects at Dartmouth that will benefit from this instrumentation here are studies on: membrane bound vesicle trafficking during lipid homeostasis, formation and maintenance of the poles of the mitotic spindle, the cell component responsible for separating the chromosomes at cell division, the effect of endogenous and exogenous steroids on early embryological development, the axoplasmic transport of membrane bound vesicles in neurons, changes in cellular autofluorescence as an indicator of future cancerous growth of cells in culture, and the role of specific nuclear proteins in cell division. This brief list highlights just a few of the projects that will immediately benefit from the awarded equipment. High resolution light microscopy and enhanced visualization technologies have long been the focus of faculty in the Biological Sciences at Dartmouth, and this award is coincident with the historical development of this department over the past three decades. The acquisition of a microscope capable of laser ablation, laser based cell isolation, and laser trap manipulations of cells and subcellular particles will complement nicely the current instrumentation and greatly improve the research and training environment for the faculty and for the graduate and undergraduate students in this department. The laser microscope will enhance the research productivity of the faculty as well as the training environment for the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students at Dartmouth. Thus, the research enterprise in the Biological Sciences at Dartmouth will be significantly enhanced.